Minister for Information, Youth, Culture and Sport, Dr. Fennela Mukangara

A total of 3,884 youth entrepreneurship groups have been formed in 20 regions in the country as part of efforts to enable them access loans, the National Assembly was informed yesterday.

Minister for Information, Youth, Culture and Sport Dr. Fennela Mukangara said the groups comprised of 28,607 members among them 9,994 female and 18,613 male.

The minister was responding to a question by Fakharia Khamis Shamour (Special Seats-CCM) who wanted to know whether the government knows the number of youth groups formed calls to organize themselves in groups so as to access loans.

She further said in implementing the strategy the ministry has conducted entrepreneurship training to 75,026 youths from 2009 to 2011 to motivate them to form groups for enterprise purposes.

“The training also involved leaders of entrepreneurship groups so that they can further educate other youths,” Dr. Mukangara said.

She said the ministry has continued to insist the regional secretariats and district councils employ youth development officers. So far 14 regions and 30 districts have employed such officers, minister noted.

“These officers among other duties will oversee the formation of youth groups and train them on supervision and operation of such groups,” she said.

Raising understanding of youth groups on how the government has translated the Youth Development Policy of 2007 was essential, she said.

The policy document has been distributed in all regions and districts through Regional Administration Secretaries and council directors as part of training needs, the minister further indicated.

Dr. Mukangara said that the government will also improve the Youth Week during the climax of the Uhuru Torch race this year at Shinyanga to highlight the performance of youth groups.